Growing Back Together - The Later Life of Katniss and Peeta
by WizMonCruWil
Summary: So this summarizes the time between post-Mockingjay and the Epilogue using significant milestones in Peeta's recovery process. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1: Dance of Real or Not Real

**Chapter 1: The Circuitous Dance of Real or Not Real**

The rising sun shone brightly through the window, pulling Katniss Everdeen out of her slumber. Clearing her mind of the last vestiges of the dream she had been having, she glanced around until she saw the familiar streak of blond hair catch the light. _Peeta_. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. He was still here. With her. And with him had been brought another consecutive night of no nightmares.

Checking the position of the sun in the sky, Katniss realized she had only a little time to go out hunting in the woods beyond District 12 before her….what could she refer to him as right now? He was not her husband, not yet anyway. She had thought about marriage someday, as she would not want to be married to anyone else but him. Boyfriend? No. Ah, her _secret lover_. That suited their present situation nicely.

Anyway, she had only a little time to go out hunting before her _secret lover_ awoke for breakfast.

Katniss got quietly out of bed, showered and dressed. When she was all ready, she dared to approach Peeta's sleeping form. She kissed his cheek softly, and whispered, "I love you, my dandelion in the spring." The young man stirred, but did not wake.

* * *

A few hours later, Katniss returned with a fresh rabbit. The stillness of the house told her Peeta was not yet up. Perfect. She could cook a full meal and surprise him. She skinned and cooked the rabbit, then added an appetizer of honeyed buns - Peeta's, and incidentally her, favorite pastry. She was just taking the meal off the oven when a sound made her turn around.

Peeta was leaning bleary-eyed in the doorway. He sauntered over to her and smiled.

"Good morning," he said warmly. Katniss gave her best smile back, and half-expected him to kiss her. _Today is the day,_ she thought. But no kiss came. Instead, Peeta sat at the table.

"You made this?" he asked, impressed. Katniss nodded, and he chuckled. "I've rubbed off on you. We'll make a baker out of you yet."

Katniss grinned. "Only when you learn how to hunt to my satisfaction," she teased back, enjoying the banter.

But a part of her was still sad. This morning's routine was similar to most others. She would rise early from the bed they shared, make breakfast, and then Peeta would come down to eat before going into town to open the bakery he ran. In this sense, the two former Hunger Games victors of District 12 acted as any husband and wife might. Yet, there were no public displays of affection beyond a fleeting hug: no kisses, certainly no sex, not even a simple "I love you" exchanged. Katniss could only show such love to Peeta in his sleep.

A sudden bump made Katniss get out of her thoughts. She froze. Peeta was holding the edges of the table for dear life and shaking violently.

 _Oh no…not again…he hasn't had a flashback in months…._

"You!" Peeta growled, but he did not rise from his seat; in fact, a tiny part of his real self was fighting to remain in control by forcing him to stay rooted to his chair as if anchored to it. Still he screamed at her. "You killed my family! You took everything from me! You…" He shook dangerously now, and suddenly all his muscles relaxed and he slumped like a noodle over the table. After a moment, he looked up.

"I had another flashback, didn't I?" Katniss nodded slowly. Peeta usually forgot immediately about flashbacks after they occurred. "Katniss, whatever I said…I didn't mean it…I'm sorry, I…"

"I know," Katniss said gently.

"Snow is dead," Peeta declared suddenly. "Real or not real?"

Katniss nodded. "Real."

"The Second Rebellion was my fault."

"Not real. If anything, it was my fault," Katniss clarified, and she almost wanted to laugh, but refrained. Real or Not Real, the game that had been invented to help cure Peeta's memory loss during the war, was never a laughing matter to the man who sat across from her.

A pause, and then: "Can you still go into work today?"

"I'd better," said Peeta, rising and grabbing his satchel. "Wheat needs help assembling that new oven we ordered." He quickly gave her a fleeting hug. "Bye. See you tonight."

"Bye." Katniss wanted desperately to say 'I love you,' but was scared of how he might react. By the time she had worked up the courage to do so, Peeta was gone.


	2. Chapter 2: First Painting

**Chapter 2: First Painting**

Katniss came home from trading in the Hob one Saturday several months later to find the living room empty. Usually at this time in the afternoon, she would find Peeta watching TV. But now, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Peeta?" she called. "I'm home!" No response. Frowning, she headed up to their room. Still nothing.

Then, she noticed that the ladder leading up to their attic was down. Strange. Neither she nor Peeta had gone up there in months. Curious, she climbed.

At one end of the dimly-lit room, she found her secret lover…at an easel.

Katniss wanted to cry. Peeta had not painted anything since before he had been taken by the Capitol. Not wanting to disturb him, she crept up behind him to observe. She nearly gasped at what she saw.

He was painting a picture of _her_. It was a picture of her in her black Mockingjay dress from the Quarter Quell, flames lapping up around the tinged fabric, her "wings" spread far afield. It was so lifelike, it almost looked like a photograph.

"It's so real," Katniss breathed. Peeta jumped and whirled around, knocking some paints to the floor. Katniss backed up quick.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't find you downstairs and…"

Peeta's tense body softened. "No, no, that's alright. I found this up here while doing some cleaning, and well…something told me I should paint and relax."

Katniss could not hide the smile on her face. "Well, don't let me disturb you. I'll let you know when dinner's ready." She proceeded down the ladder, happiness written all over her form. Little by little, the Boy with the Bread was coming back.


	3. Chapter 3: First Kiss

**Chapter 3: First Kiss**

The painting was the first in what would be several milestones in Katniss and Peeta's healing. But, if Katniss had ever imagined what their first kiss since the war would be like, she could not have predicted it to happen in the middle of an argument.

This wasn't the hijacked Peeta she was yelling at, no, it was the real one (or at least, however real he had become at that point). They were only a few feet apart, screaming at each other about something that Katniss had already forgotten.

"Oh, I see!" Peeta was practically cackling. "It's Dr. Arelius now, is it. Well, _Dr. Girl on Fire_ , what I really hate are stubborn women with their brains in their backsides!"

Katniss fumed. "Oooooooh!" She approached him now, each step matched with a derogatory word. "You are, without a doubt, the rudest, most uncouth, roughest man I've ever met!" And suddenly, to her own surprise, she grabbed him without warning and kissed him hard on the mouth. Peeta stiffened in surprise.

Katniss broke the kiss just as suddenly and reeled back into the wall. She had forgotten how good Peeta's lips tasted pressed against her own.

"Oh my god," she breathed. She reached him in one stride and brought his lips back down on hers; this time, Peeta relaxed and actually wrapped his arms around her waist. He pulled her close, his hands dancing circles across her skin and even groping her bum.

Against Peeta's, Katniss' mouth curved into a smile of elation, and she let out a tiny moan. At last. The kiss she had waited for for so long was here.


	4. Chapter 4: First I Love Yous & Sex

**Chapter 4: First "I Love You"s and Making Love**

Relations between Katniss and Peeta drastically improved over that next year. There were fewer flashbacks, fewer nightmares. Every morning, a parting hug and now kiss was exchanged between the couple as Peeta left for work.

But one thing did not improve. That was Katniss' continued thought of feeling unworthy of Peeta's love. She cared for him, that was certain, but she did not know if he, in his still less than mentally optimal self, cared for her as much as he had back when they first met.

One night, Katniss and Peeta were watching TV. It was Independence Day, and a broadcast from the Capitol showed fireworks celebrating the 10th anniversary of the end of the war.

"You done watching it?" Katniss asked finally. Peeta nodded. "I'm going to bed," she told him, before giving him and kiss on the temple and then leaving the room. Peeta stared after her before following her into the hallway.

"Will you marry me?" Katniss stopped dead on the stairs, wondering if she had heard him right. She was sure she had. Peeta continued.

"I'd make a fine husband, Katniss," Peeta continued. Katniss turned back to him.

"You would, Peeta," she admitted.

"But you won't marry me."

Katniss shook her head sadly. "You don't wanna marry me."

A moment of silence and then: "Why don't you love me, Katniss?" The huntress couldn't find an answer, so Peeta guessed one for himself.

"I'm not who I used to be," he admitted. "But I know what love is! And I love you!" He did not shout or get angry, he was just emphatic. Yet, his words still struck Katniss to her core. She backed away a step, her eyes wide.

"You…you what?" she whispered. She had never imagined he would ever say those words again to her.

"I love you," Peeta repeated, quietly this time. He turned and stepped out onto the back porch, Katniss gazing after him.

* * *

That night, rain poured in buckets around the little cottage. In the bed they still shared, Katniss lay awake, facing away from Peeta, thinking. Finally, her jaw set. She had made up her mind, and knew what she had to do. She shook Peeta awake. Before he was even fully roused, she pushed the baker onto his back and moved to straddle him.

"Katniss…" Peeta whimpered, both nervous and curious. Katniss shushed him.

"Peeta," she whispered softly. "I _do_ love you." Then she kissed him sweetly on the lips. The kiss deepened and grew in length and passion, until finally Katniss gracefully removed her nightie and let it fall to the floor. Now topless, she let Peeta put his arms about her, his fingers running across the skin of her shoulder blades. They wriggled and kissed as the pair slowly, for the very first time, began to have sex.

* * *

When they had finished making love a little while later, Katniss suddenly asked, "I want to marry you. Real or not real?"

Peeta glanced at her, surprised. "Real?"

Katniss grinned. "Good guess." And she kissed him.


	5. Chapter 5: The Wedding

**Chapter 5: The Wedding**

Several months following that late-night love session, the date of the wedding finally arrived. It had been quite a time organizing the entire event while keeping it a secret; Katniss knew that if the Capitol got wind of the event, it would go bananas - never mind that the city considered her and Peeta to be married anyway.

That is why the event was placed in a secluded area of District 12 - the woods, in fact. Peeta and Katniss would get married on a cliff overlooking the forests where the Mockingjay had made the first name for herself. The guest list was small, encompassing only the couple's fellow surviving Hunger Games victors. Also in attendance would be Katniss' mother, as well as Finnick Odair's infant son, and of course, Effie Trinket. 8 guests in all (though Peeta had actually begged, Katniss refused to extend an invitation to Gale Hawthorne).

The day of the wedding, Katniss and Peeta slipped into a limo waiting outside their house in the District 12 Victor's Village. None of the citizenry thought anything of it; Panem's most famous couple often had events to attend throughout the country of Panem and in the Capitol. The limo spirited them away to the cliffs overlooking the forest, where Haymitch Abernathy, Annie Cresta, Johanna Mason, Beetee Latier, Enobaria Golding, Finnick's baby son, Katniss' mother, Effie Trinket and the priest all waited.

Now, the Girl on Fire herself was at the altar herself, all dressed in white and looking like a swan or mockingjay about to take flight. Across from her was Peeta, in a tuxedo not unlike the one he had worn the night before the Quarter Quell. At his side was Haymitch, the couple's fellow Hunger Games victor, long-time mentor and father figure, as Best Man.

When the preacher pronounced Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen man and wife, Peeta kissed his bride with a tenderness that reminded Katniss of their very first kiss, in that cave in the first arena oh so long ago. She closed her eyes and kissed him back just as sweetly, the moment captured in the light of the setting sun. And it was into that same light that Mr. and Mrs. Mellark now walked, ready to, officially and _finally_ begin the rest of their lives together.


End file.
